This book provides an accessible account of popular political, social and economic movements in the Third World. Focusing on poor and marginalized groups within developing countries, it shows how these groups have been stimulated into action by recent demands for political and economic change.

Haynes describes the growing interest in democratic change in the Third World during the 1980s and 1990s, and argues that demands for democracy, human rights and economic change were a widespread catalyst for the emergence of hundreds of thousands of popular movements in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Sometimes these took the form of demands for more political representation and greater economic development; others were concerned with environmental protection, the broad position of women and the establishment of Islamic states and societies.

Haynes argues that these emerging popular organizations are best regarded as building blocks of civil society that, in time, will enhance the democratic nature of many political environments in the Third World.

The book will be welcomed by students and researchers in development studies, politics and sociology.

Drawing on case studies of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal and Shramik Sangathana in Maharashtra, this ground-breaking new work examines Indian women's political activism. Investigating institutional change at the state level and protest at the village level, Amrita Basu traces the paths of two kinds of political activism among these women. With insights gleaned from extensive interviews with activists, government officials, and ordinary men and women, she finds that militancy has been fueled by pronounced sexual and class cleavages combined with potentially rancorous ethnic division. Thorough in its fieldwork, incisive in its political analysis, Two Faces of Protest offers a richly textured and sensitive view of women's political activism in the Third World. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

Power is the essence of politics. Whoever seeks to understand and master it must understand its logic. Drawing on two decades of international experience in political consulting, Dominik Meier and Christian Blum give profound and honest insights into the inner workings of power. Introducing their Power Leadership Approach, the authors provide a conceptual analysis of power and present the tools to successfully exercise it in the political domain. "Power and its Logic" is a guidebook for politicians, business leaders, civil society pioneers, public affairs consultants and for every citizen who wants to understand the unwritten rules of politics.

Drawing on case studies of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal and Shramik Sangathana in Maharashtra, this ground-breaking new work examines Indian women's political activism. Investigating institutional change at the state level and protest at the village level, Amrita Basu traces the paths of two kinds of political activism among these women. With insights gleaned from extensive interviews with activists, government officials, and ordinary men and women, she finds that militancy has been fueled by pronounced sexual and class cleavages combined with potentially rancorous ethnic division. Thorough in its fieldwork, incisive in its political analysis, Two Faces of Protest offers a richly textured and sensitive view of women's political activism in the Third World. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

Aili Mari Tripp explains why autocratic leaders in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria embraced more extensive legal reforms of women's rights than their Middle Eastern counterparts. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on religiosity to explain the adoption of women's rights in Muslim-majority countries. Based on extensive fieldwork in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and an original database of gender-based reforms in the Middle East and North Africa, this accessible study analyzes how women's rights are used both instrumentally and symbolically to advance the political goals of authoritarian regimes as leverage in attempts to side-line religious extremists. It shows how Islamist political parties have been forced to dramatically change their positions on women's rights to ensure political survival. In an original contribution to the study of women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa, Tripp reveals how women's rights movements have capitalized on moments of political turmoil to defend and advance their cause.

The Soweto crisis of 1976 marked a watershed in South African political and social history. It focused the attention of the world on the injustice of South African society and started the long and tortuous process that has led to the dismantling of Apartheid. This book examines the role and increasing impotence of English-speaking intellectuals and liberals in South African politics from the 19th century until the Soweto crisis.

Q. What's worth GBP2,000,000,000, answers to no-one and operates out of public sight? A. Britain's influence industry The corporate takeover of democracy is no conspiracy theory - it's happening, and it affects every aspect of our lives: the food we eat, the places we live, the temperature of our planet, how we spend our money and how our money is spent for us. And much more. A Quiet Word shows just how effectively the voice of public interest is being drowned out by the word in the ear from the professional persuaders of the lobbying industry. And if you've never heard about them, that's because the most effective lobbying goes unnoticed. A Quiet Word shines the brightest of lights into one of the darkest and least-understood corners of our political culture. It is essential, urgent, authoritative reading for anyone interested in our democracy and where this country is heading. And by showing how influence is constructed, it puts power back in your hands.

Higher education has long been contested terrain. From student movements to staff unions, the fight for accessible, critical and quality public education has turned university campuses globally into sites of struggle. Whether calling for the decommodification or the decolonisation of education, many of these struggles have attempted to draw on (and in turn, resonate with) longer histories of popular resistance, broader social movements and radical visions of a fairer world. In this critical collection, Aziz Choudry, Salim Vally and a host of international contributors bring grounded, analytical accounts of diverse struggles relating to higher education into conversation with each other. Featuring contributions written by students and staff members on the frontline of struggles from 12 different countries, including Canada, Chile, France, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Occupied Palestine, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA, the book asks what can be learned from these movements' strategies, demands and visions.

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017 What happens when crucial public issues are decided the people themselves? Canadians answered “Yes” or “No” to prohibiting alcohol, conscripting soldiers, and revamping our constitution. Forcing such crucial choices at the ballot box is high-stakes democracy, both here and overseas — as witnessed with Britain’s transformative 2016 “Brexit” referendum. Forcing Choice dissects Canada’s extensive use of ballot questions at all levels of government, and weighs the benefits of citizens making fundamental decisions for the nation. Holding referendums is tricky, and getting it wrong carries a high price. This hard-hitting book draws on Boyer’s deep research on direct democracy and his experience advising governments about referendums, writing books, drafting and introducing the Canada Referendum Act, monitoring foreign referendums, and campaigning in Canadian ones.

This book examines the rhetoric of various "exemplars" who advocate for causes and actions pertaining to human rights in particular contexts. Although some of these exemplars champion human rights, others are human rights antagonists. Simply put, the argument here is that concern for how particular individuals advocate for human rights causes-as well as how antagonists obstruct such initiatives-adds significant value to understanding the successes and failures of human rights efforts in particular cultural and national contexts. On one hand, we can grasp how specific international organizations and actors function to develop norms (for example, the rights of the child) and how rights are subsequently articulated in universal declarations and formal codes. But on the other, it becomes apparent that the actual meaning of those rights mutate when "accepted" within particular cultures. A complementary facet of this argument relates to the centrality of rhetoric in observing how rights advocates function in practice; specifically, rhetoric focuses upon the art of argumentation and the various strategies and techniques enlisted therein. In that much of the "reality" surrounding human rights (from the standpoints of advocates and antagonists alike) is fundamentally interpretive, rhetorical (or argumentative) skill is of vital importance for advocates as competent pragma-dialecticians in presenting the case that a rights ideal can enhance life in a culture predisposed to reject that ideal. This book includes case studies focusing on the rhetoric of the following individuals or groups as either human rights advocates or antagonists: Mary B. Anderson, Rwandan "hate radio" broadcasters, politicians and military officials connected with the Kent State University and Tiananmen Square student protest tragedies, Iqbal Masih, Pussy Riot, Lyndon Johnson, Julian Assange, Geert Wilders, Daniel Barenboim, Joe Arpaio, and Lucius Banda.

During the early 1880s a continual interaction of events, ideas, and people in Ireland and the United States created a ""Greater Ireland"" spanning the Atlantic that profoundly impacted both Irish and American society. In A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America, Ely M. Janis closely examines the Irish National Land League, a transatlantic organization with strong support in Ireland and the United States. Founded in Ireland in 1879 against the backdrop of crop failure and agrarian unrest, the Land League pressured the British government to reform the Irish landholding system and allow Irish political self-rule. The League quickly spread to the United States, with hundreds of thousands of Irish Americans participating in branches in their local communities. As this ""Greater Ireland"" flourished, new opportunities arose for women and working-class men to contribute within Irish-American society. Exploring the complex interplay of ethnicity, class, and gender, Janis demonstrates the broad range of ideological, social, and political opinion held by Irish Americans in the 1880s. Participation in the Land League deeply influenced a generation that replaced their old county and class allegiances with a common cause, shaping the future of Irish-American nationalism.

This latest volume in the CQ Press series on vital statistics in American politics tackles interest groups and lobbying. This book builds from data that has been collected and organized from disclosure forms now required to be filed by registered lobbyists. After providing background about the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the book explores such questions as: When do organizations register to lobby? What are the characteristics of lobbying organizations (varying from professional and trade associations to businesses, coalitions, public interest groups, and intergovernmental groups)? How extensively do organizations lobby on issues? What sorts of efforts do they exert across Congress, the White House, and the various federal agencies? What is involved in terminations of lobbying firms and organizations? What sorts of issues and organizations are most often targeted? And what sorts of moneys are spent and how? Via narrative supported by extensive tables and charts, Vital Statistics on Interest Groups provides a broad, comprehensive, and informative view of lobbying, interest groups, and campaign contributions and their impact on American national politics.

The top one percent own about one-third of the assets in America and 40 percent of assets around the world. This concentration of financial resources in many countries gives the ultra-rich extraordinary influence over elections, public policy, and governance. In his new book, Darrell M. West analyzes the growing political activism of billionaires and how they have created more activist forms of politics and philanthropy based on their net worth. With this "wealthification" of politics and society, it is important to understand how this concentration of wealth affects system performance as well as social and economic opportunity. Through personal interactions and rich anecdotes, West takes us inside the world of the super-wealthy through a balanced and insightful analysis of U.S. billionaires such as Sheldon Adelson, David and Charles Koch, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Donald Trump and Tom Steyer. And looking abroad, West analyzes the billionaires who have run for office in nations such as Austria, Australia, France, Georgia, India, Italy, Russia, Thailand, and the Ukraine. From oligarchs in Russia and Eastern Europe to princelings in China, tycoons raise important questions about political influence, transparency, accountability, and government performance. This book argues that countries need policies that promote better transparency, governance, and opportunity.

The Confederation Paysanne, one of France's largest farmers' unions, has successfully fought against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but unlike other allied movements, theirs has been led by producers rather than consumers. In Food, Farms, and Solidarity, Chaia Heller analyzes the group's complex strategies and campaigns, including a call for a Europe-wide ban on GM crops and hormone-treated beef, and a protest staged at a McDonald's. Her study of the Confederation Paysanne shows the challenges small farms face in a postindustrial agricultural world. Heller also reveals how the language the union uses to argue against GMOs encompasses more than the risks they pose; emphasizing solidarity has allowed farmers to focus on food as a cultural practice and align themselves with other workers. Heller's examination of the Confederation Paysanne's commitment to a vision of alter-globalization, the idea of substantive alternatives to neoliberal globalization, demonstrates how ecological and social justice can be restored in the world.

Where politics is dominated by two large parties, as in the United States, politicians should be relatively immune to the influence of small groups. Yet narrow interest groups often win private benefits against majority preferences and at great public expense. Why? The "vulnerability thesis" is that the electoral system is largely to blame, making politicians in two-party systems more vulnerable to interest group demands than politicians in multiparty systems. Political scientist Lorelei Moosbrugger ranks democracies on a continuum of political vulnerability and tests the thesis by examining agrochemical policy in Austria, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the European Union.

In carefully crafted official statements, the European Union presents itself as an honest broker in the Middle East. In reality, however, the EU's 27 governments have been engaged in a long process of accommodating Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. Journalist David Cronin interrogates the relationship and its outcomes. A recent agreement for "more intense, more fruitful, more influential co-operation" between the EU and Israel has meant that Israel has become a member state of the Union in all but name. Cronin shows that rather than using this relationship to encourage Israeli restraint, the EU has legitimized actions such as the ill-treatment of prisoners and the Gaza invasion. Concluding his revealing and shocking account, Cronin calls for a continuation and deepening of international activism and protest to halt the EU's slide into complicity.

Never before has the idea of democracy enjoyed the global dominance it holds today, but neoliberalism has left the practice of democracy finds itself in deep crisis. Marianne Maeckelbergh argues that the most promising model for global democracy is not coming from traditional political parties or international institutions, but from the global networks of resistance to neoliberal economics, known collectively as the Alter-globalization movement. Through extensive ethnography of decision-making practices within these movements, Maeckelbergh describes an alternative form of global democracy in the making. Perfect for activists and students of political anthropology, this powerful and enlightening book offers radical changes.

A revised, updated and expanded edition of this classic feminist account of British labour history Critical and iconoclastic, Comrade or Brother? traces the history of the British Labour Movement from its beginnings at the onset of industrialisation through its development within a capitalist society, up to the end of the twentieth-century. Written by a leading activist in the labour movement, the book redresses the balance in much labour history writing. It examines the place of women and the influence of racism and sexism as well as providing a critical analysis of the rival ideologies which played a role in the uneven development of the labour movement.